MHA Corporate Finance advises AdvancedAdvT Ltd with the acquisition of five software businesses from Capita plc, in a competitive sale process

AdvancedAdvT Limited (LSE:ADVT), is an acquisition vehicle listed on the London Stock Exchange. With a focus in the software sector, the business seeks mid-cap acquisition opportunities. The deal sees ADVT acquire five software businesses from Capita plc, the businesses are CIBS, CHKS, Retain, WFM and Synaptic and had a combined reported revenue and profit before tax for the year to 31 December 2022 of £35m and £3m respectively. Gross assets were £81m at 31 December 2022.

In addition to organic growth, the acquisitions will create a platform to develop ADVT by exploring growth opportunities in synergistic sectors and by targeted investment and M&A activities.

Jon Lewis, Capita’s Chief Executive Officer, said:

"We are pleased to have agreed the sale of these non-core software businesses to ADVT following a competitive sale process. The sale marks another step for our successful disposals programme which has enabled us to significantly strengthen the balance sheet and materially reduce our debt. We continue to target for the majority of the remaining businesses within our non-core Portfolio division to be sold during the first half of 2023, depending on general market conditions."

Vin Murria, ADVT Chairperson, commented:

"We are delighted to start our next journey with the great teams from across these businesses and look forward to working with them. As has been our model in previous vehicles, ADVT will support the teams in delivering strong new organic growth - both in existing sectors as well as new areas including data, analytics, managed service and digital transformation opportunities. Equally, we are excited to drive new opportunities and with a substantial war chest, the business is well placed to execute M&A that is both synergistic and accretive over the longer term."

The MHA Corporate Finance team led by Corporate Finance Partner and Transaction Services Leader, Rob Dando alongside Corporate Tax Partners, Chris Denning and Nathan Sutcliffe, delivered specialist financial and tax due diligence services to ADVT to facilitate the acquisitions.

Rob commented:

“Our knowledgeable capital markets, financial and tax due diligence team have completed another successful transaction for one of our clients. It has been exciting to work on this transaction and assist the ADVT team with this group of acquisitions, during this competitive sale process. MHA has extensive experience in the tech sector, and we look forward to continuing to support the ADVT team with their ongoing acquisition strategy.”

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